About me






  • Plant Ecophysologist
  • Ecosystem Ecologist


  • www.courtneycampany.com

This semester we will practice being an ecologist

This semester we will ….

  • Immerse ourselves in weekly ecological themes
    • lecture
    • journal club
    • quantitative reasoning


  • Go outside!!!


  • Run ecological experiments


  • SOLVE a major ecological issue!


  • Practice communicating science
    • Find your voice!

What is ecology (textbook)?

What is ecology (textbook)?



  • Relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings
    • living and non-living components


  • (1) Distribution and abundance of organisms


  • (2) Interactions among organisms


  • (3) Transformation and flux of energy and matter

Ecology spans many scales

Ecologist try to explain, understand and predict




What is the central need for ecology?

For Journal Club this week….


  • Read “100 articles every ecologist should read”
    • article and cheat sheet on SAKAI


  • Take specific notes
    • What ecological themes are common?
    • Do you feel any themes are missing?
    • Is there a take home message?
    • Is there anything you don’t understand?


  • Pay attention to little details
    • Are there any patterns you see?
    • Do you detect any issues?

Journal Club warning…

  • If there is one thing that I know in life it is ferns!


  • If there are two things that I know the second is if you have read the paper. It is obvious to me when you are not prepared for the readings. I can easily distinguish between misunderstanding and poor preparation!


  • I take this very seriously and you will NOT do well in this class if you do not participate
    • come to class prepared to speak!